The Wrong Child
by Leo of Nohr
Summary: Kyouhei travels to the very edge of the Unova region, and what he discovers there is just another fragment of the person whose existence has tailed him from the very beginning.


"Touya? Is that you?" He felt like his breath had been sucked out of him. Of course. Of course. He hadn't realised until now, and now he felt terrible. Oh no. All this time he'd been wandering Unova and he had never once stopped to ask Cheren about the person he reminded him of. He had never once looked at Bianca and asked her who the third member of their little group was.

Now he was here, in Nuvema Town, the dead end to end all dead ends. This was the end of the line, the end point in a long journey, the last place in Unova that he had never been to. He had met the professor in her lab and he saw where Bianca used to live, where Cheren used to live. He saw the name rubbed off the sign of the house in the centre of the village due to disuse and lack of care. But he didn't think. He didn't think before he entered the house that belonged to the missing piece in all of this.

The woman turned around, and the hope on her face turned to heartbreak when he realised he hadn't even thought of an apology that could ever be suitable for what he had just done. "Don't worry, young man," she said, but she looked upset. "I mistook you for someone else."

So his name was Touya. The boy who was everywhere in the corners of his adventure. Cheren had missed him and Bianca had missed him. He'd heard from N, the strange man who had also hidden on the sidelines of his travels, about the strange and caring boy who had changed everything two years ago. Strangers on the street who told him that there were boys who tamed the legendary dragons. The man on Village Bridge, Alder, the Elite Four, Iris, all of them, they'd all told him so much about the boy who had just vanished after he had done so much to help the world.

The boy's name was Touya, and Kyouhei had never felt so much like a place holder in his life.

"I've heard so much about him," he said, and it was so true that he wanted to cry. It was so obvious that there was a missing part that he had been trying to fill without knowing. "What was Touya like?"

"He is the most caring young man I've ever met," she said, emphasising the word is. Kyouhei wondered how long it had been since she had seen her son and if it was reasonable to say that he is rather than was a part of her life. "I suppose I can't say that, seeing as he's my son." Her laugh was breathless and sad. "He loves Pokémon so much and he was so excited to go on his journey." He was excited to go, but then he never came back. "He used to visit every few days after he taught his Pokémon how to bring him home, he said he missed me when he was out there on his own and he liked to have some time to sleep in his own bed for a change." Kyouhei didn't think it was appropriate to tell her that it sounded like she was reading a eulogy for him.

"I heard that he's an incredibly talented trainer," he said, and he was sure that she had heard that one a million times. His own mother told him that she was constantly told by people that they'd met him and she was lucky to have such a talented trainer as her son.

"He never told me that he wanted to be," she said. "His adventure was always meant to be about discovering Unova and everything it held. I wish now that it had stayed in Unova. I'm happy that he's exploring the world, but...I can't expect you to understand, young man."

She was right. He did understand, of course, that the way Touya had gone away had hurt everyone around him. But at the same time, to him it sounded like Touya wasn't meant to be the sort who stuck around forever. He had never known the man, only accidentally stumbled onto the path that Touya had once tread, but it was the way that people spoke about him. But he felt like he couldn't voice this, it would just hurt her. So he just nodded.

"May I ask your name?" She asked. "And I can heal your Pokémon, if you'd like." His mum always healed his Pokémon when he came home, and it went unsaid that this was what she did for Touya, too.

"Kyouhei," he said. "Thank you for being so welcoming."


End file.
